Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it's disgusting the amount of landlords who won't accept DSS?

655 replies

7hup · 22/01/2019 16:23

My friend is 36 and just been kicked out by her boyfriend because she had a mental breakdown and multiple suicide attempts .

She's just been released from hospital and has been given a B&B room as temporary accommodation.

She has to claim universal credit as she is in no fit state to work.

Council said if she can find private housing they will cover her first month's rent/deposit/fees.

No where takes housing benefit.

It's unfair.

There's no council accommodation and no private landlords will accept it.

She's 36. No children. No pets. Doesn't drink. Doesn't smoke. Is quiet and polite. Keeps to herself. Clean and tidy. She just needs a home :(

Its working people too. My Dsis has a kid and can't move out of my mums because she works only 16 hours because of her son so would receive housing benefit. So she can't move either.

Even on Spareroom. Co. UK in our area there are 674 rooms.

ONE takes DSS. And is dou le the price of similar rooms

It's so unfair :(

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 22/01/2019 23:11

Maybe you should stop, 7hup.

I suppose it's better than elitist cunt though. Smile

Original poster
7hup · 22/01/2019 23:12

Maybe I should stop what? Replying to my own thread Hmm

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 22/01/2019 23:15

No. Referring to yourself in such a dehumanising fashion.

AnyFucker · 22/01/2019 23:16

And also namechanging to reply to your own thread. What's that about then ?

PlumpSyrianHamster · 22/01/2019 23:17

Oh, we came across a lot of them that were 'no children', mainly they didn't want small children in there with a SAHP because there's more wear and tear on the property.

We did have LL's who truly thought they were doing us a favour by taking our money for rent and yy, thought we'd do maintenance that was their remit for them gratis. Nope.

HelenaDove · 22/01/2019 23:20

OP Seriously you have got this place wrong. There is a wide range of people on here just like any forum.

The elitist cunt comment was a bit unfair though i understand you are worried about your friend Im going to catch up with the thread now as i logged off just after 9pm.

Original poster
7hup · 22/01/2019 23:20

I didn't change my name to reply to my own thread. I put a capital H by accident when logging back in so reposted the same message once I realised.

Ask MNHQ to check if I replied under any other name as I didn't.

You always seem so angry Anyfucker, have you considered a spa day, hun?

OP posts:
Original poster
7hup · 22/01/2019 23:21

I've been here 14 years. I know how it works

OP posts:
FlamingoPoet · 22/01/2019 23:22

As pp say, mortgage lenders and insurers have a large say. Also what one pp said - universal credit no longer goes to the landlord. Massive error. Landlords can also end up homeless when tenants fail to pay their rent.

PlumpSyrianHamster · 22/01/2019 23:24

Also what one pp said - universal credit no longer goes to the landlord.

Rudd reversed that but the real issue is that it's well known that UC is very unstable, can be stopped at any time, your award often changes so it's still not a good guarantee of rent.

FiddlesticksAkimbo · 22/01/2019 23:25

Hi 7hup (OP),

It's nothing to do with you or your friend being judged as scum. Any more than 19 year old boys being priced out of the car insurance market is a judgement on their moral character. It's just about risk. Tenants can very rapidly run up huge amounts of liability, especially in unpaid rent. Anyone taking on that risk tries to assess the chances of the worst actually happening. Anyone who qualifies for housing benefit is by the nature of means-tested benefits, living on the financial edge. The risk of them being unable to pay their rent is much higher. That's why landlords' insurance companies are unwilling to take them on. And no prudent landlord is going to shoulder the risk either.

One solution would be for the tenant to get a guarantor who would pay up if they can't. But guarantors are unlikely to be keen to step up to the plate for similar reasons. Basically no one wants to be left holding the baby of unpaid rent.

HelenaDove · 22/01/2019 23:28

@AnyFucker Thanks

AnyFucker · 22/01/2019 23:28

I don't think I am the one coming across as "angry" here

Original poster
7hup · 22/01/2019 23:29

I do understand the logistics.

I just think something needs to be done. People deserve a home.
It's people on low incomes, low wages and with disabilities that are suffering

OP posts:
FiddlesticksAkimbo · 22/01/2019 23:31

The government could act as guarantor. But don't hold your breath!

FuzzyShadowChatter · 22/01/2019 23:33

The state and difficulties around housing are disgusting. I don't we can put that on landlords who don't accept housing benefit, either due to mortgage or insurance or for personal reasons. I think they're a very small piece of a much larger, complex mix of situations that have created and maintain the current housing clusterfuck.

I think the whole idea of benefits being more reliable or won't be stopped in comparison to a job needs to be shut down. I hear it a lot and that's really not and I'm not sure has ever been the case. Most of the people I know, working or not, disabled or not, that have used housing benefit have dealt with it being stopped or messed it at one time or another. My family was on housing benefit for a few years while living in a housing association property and there were at times months in a row where it was stopped and we had to go get it corrected just for it be stopped again the next month and we'd have to go back and resubmit evidence again. It's really easy to go through extended periods where benefits are messed with - it's just as much of a disgusting clusterfuck.

It's easy to blame the landlords, and there are plenty of landlords (and housing associations and councils and so on) that aren't helping, but - really - the issues currently going on aren't really solved by having a dig at landlords.

AnyFucker · 22/01/2019 23:34

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/rent_deposit,_bond_and_guarantee_schemes guarantor schemes

AnyFucker · 22/01/2019 23:35

Sorry will try that link again

HelenaDove · 22/01/2019 23:35

@AbsentmindedWoman its like we go round in circles as a society. Disabled people living in institutions is still just about within living memory. And then society rightly came to the conclusion that this was appalling so steps were taken to change it and now we seem to be hurtling backwards.

There was a news item tonight about online abuse of disabled people but many cant seem to see the connection that because of the dehuminization of disabled people that goes on (yes certain media outlets im looking at you) some nasty bastards see it as a green light to be abusive.

AnyFucker · 22/01/2019 23:36

here

FiddlesticksAkimbo · 22/01/2019 23:39

Interesting, anyfucker! The state will act as guarantor! If that scheme is available there's no reason for landlords to turn down tenants on housing benefit.

Floandme · 22/01/2019 23:41

This thread is going round and round in circles

theres no such thing as DSS, yeah so my sisters boyfriend was renting to a DSS

most people on HB work, I can't rent to DSS as I can only rent to employed people

ROAR at the lovely clean doctors though. My mate was asked to clean for a shared house rented by doctors. It was an utter pigsty. She flatly refused and said she didn't need the money that much

Floandme · 22/01/2019 23:42

That scheme is not available everywhere. The same as the fabled 'list of private landlords' which all councils keep. They really really don't.

AnyFucker · 22/01/2019 23:43

There are some hoops to jump through, FA. And not every area has a fully robust scheme. It's a bit "post code lottery" and not perfect but certainly there are such schemes available in my neck of the woods which includes some traditionally deprived areas (Manchester region)

MidniteScribbler · 22/01/2019 23:52

Why is a decent, hard working single parent or somebody who is disabled and claims HB allowed to be turned away from renting, and therefore potentially made homeless? I'm not attacking the LLs as such, more the system.

Unless you make it law for landlords to accept a single parent/receipt of benefits over a working couple with a good rental history, it's not going to happen. I have rented my home out whilst I am overseas and received 18 applications from tenants from a whole mix of people. Of course I sat down and assessed all of the applications and I and chose the two professional working parents with two teenagers in private school who sat quietly on the sofa and read a book while I showed their parents around, and their one cat, over the two unemployed parents on benefits with five children under 9 who tried to climb the pool fence and picked all the roses of my bushes, and their three dogs, two rabbits and guinea pigs. It's about making a risk assessment and deciding what is going to be the safest bet.